Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has urged Google to reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico on its Maps platform, following an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The order, signed in his first week in office, mandates that the body of water—bordered by the U.S., Cuba, and Mexico—be renamed the “Gulf of America” within U.S. territory.
While the new name will only be visible to users accessing Google Maps from the U.S., the rest of the world will continue to see “Gulf of Mexico,” a name that has been in use for centuries.
However, Mexico argues that the U.S. lacks the legal authority to change the name of an international body of water, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which limits a nation’s sovereign territory to 12 nautical miles from its coastline.
“[The name change] could only correspond to the 12 nautical miles away from the coastlines of the United States of America,” Sheinbaum stated, emphasizing Mexico’s position.
Google, in a statement on social media, defended its move, explaining that it follows a “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
The company also revealed plans to rename Mount Denali as Mount McKinley within the U.S., in line with another directive from Trump.
“When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name,” Google added.
Sheinbaum criticized the tech giant’s decision, arguing that it should not “respond to the mandate of a country” to alter the name of “an international sea.”
In a lighthearted response to Trump’s move, she joked that Mexico might request additional name changes on the map.
“By the way, we are also going to ask for Mexican America to appear on the map,” she quipped.
Sheinbaum had previously joked that Mexico might consider renaming North America as “América Mexicana.”
Dismissing Trump’s order, she insisted, “For us, it is still the Gulf of Mexico, and for the entire world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico.”
Source-BBC
